Safe hands
NZTA hires more advertising muscle to tackle road toll
The New Zealand Transport Agency (Waka Kotahi) is bringing in more advertising firepower to reduce the road toll in New Zealand. The appointment of ad agency FCB Aotearoa comes after a business pitch, understood to have involved a number of major ad agencies.
FCB will be responsible for developing and delivering a new public awareness campaign in 2021 to support the Government’s “Road to Zero” road safety strategy.
Sean Keaney, the managing director of the Wellington arm of the agency, commented on the importance of helping to do this work.
“We’re very privileged to have been selected to partner with Waka Kotahi on this incredibly important mahi and . . . can’t wait to start.”
FCB has a long history of working with government clients, picking up numerous awards for its efforts with the likes of Water Safety NZ and Fire and Emergency NZ in recent years.
The agency was also appointed to the Worksafe NZ account last year.
NZTA general manager engagement and partnerships Karen Jones says the campaign will focus on lifting public awareness of road safety and getting New Zealanders to buy into the strategies in place.
“On average, one person is killed every day on New Zealand roads and another seven are seriously injured,” says Jones.
“Deaths or serious injuries should not be an inevitable cost of travelling or making mistakes on the road. The Road to Zero strategy has a vision for a New Zealand where no one is killed or seriously injured in road crashes. It includes how we design the road network, set safe speeds and make road safety decisions.”
The number of annual deaths on New Zealand roads dropped steadily from 795 in 1987 to 253 in 2013.
Since then, there has been a steady increase, with the number of deaths climbing to 378 by 2018.
Last year, there was a slight drop but the number still remained comparatively high at 353 deaths.
Despite Covid-19 and the impact of the lockdowns, this year is again on track to breach the 300-fatality threshold, with the current number of road deaths sitting at 296.
The NZTA has increased its budget on advertising and communications in recent years in a bid to spread awareness of road safety messages.
Data from researcher Nielsen shows the agency spent $21 million on advertising between November 2017 and October 2018, increasing to $30m a year later.
Between November 2019 and October this year, NZTA has spent just shy of $33m on advertising.
NZTA has in recent years worked extensively with Wellington-based ad agency Clemenger BBDO on a number of award-winning campaigns.
These include last year’s powerful campaign showing stark images of restraint injuries on people who survived car crashes thanks to seat belts.
Clemenger was also the creative force behind 2011’s iconic Ghost Chips ad as well as 2013’s Blazed As, which was directed by Taika Waititi.
NZTA has stressed that it will continue to work with Clemenger on its road safety advertising programme, saying this is a separate programme focused on long-term behaviour change of road users.